Lend Lease has sold its interest in the UK's Bluewater Shopping Centre in a transaction that will help boost the property group's full-year profit by around 45 per cent.
The property group now expects to deliver 2014 full-year net profit after tax in a range between $810 million and $830 million, a sharp increase on its fiscal 2013 profit of $551.6m.
Analyst expectations for fiscal 2015 net profit of between $600m and $620m remain within a comfortable range, Lend Lease said.
Lend Lease offloaded its interest in Bluewater to Land Securities Group for £656 million, and its management rights and sundry land interests for £40 million.
The combined pre-tax value of the transaction is £696 million ($A1.22 billion), but the expected profit on the sale is expected to be around $480m, after transaction costs, associated costs and tax.
The group will use the cash proceeds of the sale to pay down debt and support investment in its significant $38 billion global development pipeline.
Lend Lease said it had factored in a number of adjustments in addition to the sale when updating its full-year guidance, including a higher expected tax rate of 16-19 per cent and certain transactional profits associated with its development business and investments that are now no longer expected to occur in fiscal 2014.
"Lend Lease also intends to restructure and potentially exit three communities projects in Australia (A$40 million post tax)," the group said.
The property group maintained its distribution policy of paying out between 40 and 60 per cent of earnings and expects the total distribution for fiscal 2014 to be at the midpoint of this range.
